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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Officers of the Suzerainty of Phorus : Conversion W.I.P.

I've been compiling ideas for the timeline and various worlds for Planets in Peril for.. well, years now.
One thing I've always enjoyed about the gaming hobby, in minis wargaming and RPGs before that is 'world building'. Creating a setting is just great fun. So creating multiple worlds is even more fun.

Eventually I'll organize it and present it. Quickly speaking, it begins in the early twentieth century and progresses several decades. It is unashamedly inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs, a touch of Wells and who knows what else pulled on my neurons to make a stamp here and there, along with some original ideas I would hope. The nice thing about a Burroughs-concept of the solar system is it is rich, fertile ground for crafting worlds. If there is a rock out there orbiting the Sun then it's worthy of populating, hard science be damned.

Despite wars and conflicts our inner planets are comparatively safe, because the outer planets are dominated by the Jovian Overlords: shadowy powers who's purpose in using terrestrial races as pawns are unfathomable. There are many races under their sway already, on the large rocky moons of the Gas Giants. One of the more formidable powers is the Suzerainty of Phorus, located on Enceladus, orbiting Saturn.

The Suzerainty is an old and byzantine culture, steeped in martial tradition. Their pride runs deep, many of their citizens do not know that the Jovians are in fact living beings, believing them to be the spirits of dead Suzerains of the past. Phorusian legions are anything but an uncommon sight in the worlds past the asteroid belt.

Since Suzerainty troops might be numerous foes in some scenarios I picked up three sets of 5-man squads from CP Models. When I saw these minis I loved them instantly. Quirky and Odd: just my style. I've always loved prehistoric 'Terror Birds' so the minis of what might be an evolved sentient race of them was something I couldn't resist. I knew I'd want some terrestrial races for the Outer Planets, but hadn't decided what they'd be... but now I have the first one set and starting to decide details on their culture and history, as you see from above.

A set of 5 minis comes with 4 riflemen and a leader, to create more variety I converted the 3 leaders: 1 commander and 2 lesser officers. The commander I just made a helmet and the others I removed the sword and gave them force halberds. And that's that. Here they are:

These three and 12 riflemen make 15 that are primed and ready to start painting.
I'm looking forward to them! What do you think of them?

And yes, some of these large moons are still pretty small, especially compared to a planet like Earth.

Take the Phorusians' world of Enceladus, seen here to scale:

A small world. but considering it has no oceans, but plenty of ice & lakes beneath the surface, there is still plenty of land for a formidable power to call home. Considering how much of the Earth was under the power of the island in the picture above, I think the Suzerainty should not be quickly dismissed.

Nice fluff you've put together for them!I haven't seen those minis before, but they seem very detailed and those small conversions you did make them look like they're different sculpts! Nice job, congrats!